The new cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program. The new variety resulted from a crossing performed in 1996 in North Taranaki, Nth Is, New Zealand. The seed parent is the unpatented, unnamed Michelia yunnanensis. The pollen parent is the unpatented variety Michelia hybrid ‘Mixed Up Miss’. The new variety was selected 2001, by the inventor, Mark Jury at a commercial nursery in North Taranaki, Nth Is, New Zealand.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘MICjur01’ by vegetative cuttings was first in performed in 2002 at a commercial nursery in New Zealand and has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type on successive generations.